A great fast read for your Space Boy.

I had another daddy daughter date night at the local library this last week. I'm finding that one of the best ways for me to connect with my kids is through the books they read. For parents that want a little advice...go to the library with your kids. You'll learn as much about them from the books they want to read as you do from anything that they say to you. Anyway...that's not the purpose of this blog post. While I was at the library I took the opportunity to grab a book for myself. I picked up another Orson Scott Card book. This one was actually a novella titled Space Boy. This book was a VERY fast read...which means it's perfect for your ADD/ADHD boy  about the age of twelve who has a book report due on Monday and it's Saturday and he hasn't read a book yet. This book was full of the juvenile type of things that boys love and at the same time it captured some of the real world drama that many boys go through at some point in their life. It was smart, crude, heart-felt, callous, and most of all short. The characters are not really developed in any meaningful way but at the same time you find yourself identifying with all of them even the hapless dad. Science fiction in the most real sense this novella plays with the ideas of time and space travel. It also deals with aliens and pseudo-science like worm holes and stuff. The real essence of the story comes down to family and the way we protect and love each other. Most of the boys reading this aren't likely to see that so glaringly as I did but they will see that the main character Todd selflessly does what he can to reunite his family. I encourage you to get this book for your boy and see if he doesn't like it. I'd put my money on them enjoying it. While you're at it read it your self and enjoy. Then post your book report as a comment.

3 tips to get your gardening on.

Phil did not see his shadow a couple of days ago and that means Spring is on the way. For green thumbs everywhere the excitement can begin. It might seem a little forward thinking given the insane amount of snow and cold across the country but this weather will pass and if you haven't been thinking green for a couple of weeks now you'll be behind the game when this mess thaws. I'm including some tips to get ready now for the impending planting season.

Get ready...get set...seed.

Image via WikipediaThere are many hardy plants that you can start in seed today and plant as soon as you can chip away the ice (ok so if there's ice don't plant...but if the soil can be dug...plant). Believe it or not that day is closer than you think. Some things to start from seed right now are broccoli, cauliflower, swiss chard, cabbage, eggplant, lettuce, onions(from seed not bulb or start), parsley, peppers, spinach (watch for hard frosts), tomatoes (seed only) and dozens of other hardy plants. Now it's important to understand that this is just starting seeds and not actually planting in your garden.

Planning makes everything easier

If you do row gardening or (my preference) Squarefoot Gardening, planning is very important. Know where, when, and how your precious seedlings will be planted. Stagger your harvest by planting at different times. Determine the space needed for your garden. When will you be able to harvest some of your garden and replant? Plan this all out while you're stuck in the house with ten foot drifts of snow at your door and you'll be that much better off when you're donning your short sleeve shirts and gardening gloves.

Infrastructure saves you from insanity

Part of planning is getting the actual space ready. This means building or developing some infrastructure. If you haven't got Squarefoot Gardens you might check out my review of "All New Squarefoot Gardening" and then go out and get some supplies. Building a garden is more than tilling up some ground in your back yard (at least it should be). If you have got a Squarefoot Garden then you are way ahead of the game. If you didn't cover and clean at the end of last season you'll need to go out and remove all the leaves and debris from your garden and you'll likely need to turn the soil a little. If you plan on growing up in your garden make sure you've got the proper trusses. If you're just starting get the book from the link above and get out before the rest of the folks out there.

Have fun.

Gardening is a family thing. If you haven't got family invite neighbor kids over to help. If you decide to do row gardening you've decided to do more work and that's fine because half the fun is spending time in the fresh air. If you've got time and a camera start a gardening blog that documents the growth of your plants. Just do something that turns your garden into more than another food source or weekend work. Finally, push winter out of your life and start thinking spring because there is a green tomorrow under all of the white today.

Review: Trust Agents

I just finished this book and for most of the people who follow this blog this post is going to be boring. Of course there's always the chance that I'll make it interesting with some quip about monkeys or something. So maybe you should read the whole review.

Why would I pick up a book like this? On the face of things this isn't the typical book that I read or review. First of all the I despise self help books and this is arguably a self help book. Second I usually read for fun and that, generally speaking, means fiction. Third, and perhaps most importantly, monkeys are funny. Just making sure you're all still reading.


Recently I decided that I had some skills with technology that I could share with the less tech-savvy folk out there. In making this decision I had to understand how I was going to offer up that help and get word out that I was available. Being something of a geek and enjoying immensely the use of my new (free) Google laptop, I decided to start a website that I would call my "business" and offer up my help as a Social Media Consultant. CnctNow (read: connect now) is born. The only problem now is that I don't have a reputation to leverage to make this venture successful or even useful. I began my search for social media professionals and advice on how to become a social media consultant. The result of this search revealed Chris Brogan. Reading some of his blog posts and seeing the way he treated the business of social media gave me some perspective. I noticed that he had written a book and the first chance I got I picked it up at my local library.

It took me a lot longer than normal to read this book. It's not that I didn't enjoy the book. On the contrary I enjoyed it more than I expected. It took some time to get through this book because there's really so much to digest in this book. It's not just a book about social media and how to build an internet identity. It is about being human and treating people like they are human. It's about creating a sense of community by being friendly, helpful, honest, and, the buzzword of the book, transparent. I learned a lot from this book and it helped point me in the right direction for how to build my reputation, identity and how to make my own game.

You don't have to want the same things as me or even be interested in social media or the internet to get something from this book. Those things are good but this book really transcends its intended audience of entrepreneurs and business leaders and becomes a guide on how to treat people and live a life of influence and usefulness. I encourage you to read this book and get back to me on your thoughts. If you made it this far into this post I think you deserve to have one more bit of entertainment. Wasn't it worth it?Image via Wikipedia

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Yesterday we went to a movie. Yup we didn't rent a movie, we actually went to a theater with four kids one of which celebrated his second birthday that very day. We had the whole experience. I ate too much popcorn and drank too much pop. That, however, is not what this post is about. We watched as you may have noticed by the title of this post Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It was an awesome movie. We didn't watch it in 3D but it wouldn't have made the movie better. I have read the entire series of Chronicles of Narnia and enjoyed them very much. I have watched The Lion Witch & The Wardrobe as well as Prince Caspian and this one is easily the best of the three. I'm not going to suggest that the acting was better because it wasn't. The thing that made this one the best of the three is how closely it followed the book. I would normally not compare a movie to a book but in this case it couldn't be helped because they were so similar. C.S. Lewis was an incredible author and created one of the best fantasy worlds of all literature.
I loved the overt Christian theme and the awesome way that the world of Narnia came to life. Having read the book and now watching the movie I felt like I was having deja vu. The way the islands felt like I had visited them along side Caspian, Reepicheep, Edmund and Lucy was almost surreal. The snotty way that Eustace spoke and the humility that changed his very countenance after changing back from being a dragon.
I encourage all who haven't seen this to watch it as soon as you are able. It's not necessary to watch it on the silver screen because it's about the story and not the venue and the story is phenomenal. Remember that Aslan is with you always and remember he's just known by a different name in our world.  

Hidden Empire by Orson Scott Card

This week I took my son to the library and we both got new library cards.  I helped him pick out some books to read and then I got some for me.  I picked up Hidden Empire for my entertainment and I wasn't disappointed.  Having read Empire by Orson Scott Card a couple of years ago I was excited to see the sequel to it and a little intrigued at how this near future/alternative reality sci-fi thriller would twist and turn.  The first novel was interesting because it dealt with the civil war that happens between Red States and Blue State and is ultimately resolved in a series of dramatic and heroic twists that leave you just a little hopeful for the world.  This book starts off with something just as tragic and perhaps more dreadful than Civil War.  A virus that has the potential to kill as much as half of the worlds population starts in Africa.  It is this virus that becomes the tool of bringing peace...that and war.  As the President in the story says ( and I'm sure he's quoting someone) "There is no road to peace that does not pass through war".  One thing that really surprised me was the use of Christianity in this book.  Historically speaking the Roman Empire was lost in large part to a plague that devastated the population and eventually led to Christians becoming the influencing factor in succeeding governments.  The reason given for their success is that they cared for each other through the plague and for their neighbors and because of that they died at a significantly lower rate than the non-Christians.  The Christians in this story act the same way and in doing so drop death rates from the virus from 30-50% down to 15% or lower.  This theme in the middle of the larger story is something that struck me as the purpose behind the novel.  Not the political story and not the similarities to world circumstances today but the theme of civilization existing on the backs of people willing to care for one another.  I'm not suggesting that Christians are the only ones that do that.  I'm simply saying that this book brings to light the real success of civilization and that is not the technology, the economy, the politics, it is the lives we share one with another.  Orson Scott Card in the end of this proposes an incredible moral dilemma and to me the answer was in the middle of the book and not in the ethics of political posturing for the benefit of mankind.  If you enjoy a political thriller on top of world class moral dilemmas with just the right twist of Science Fiction then this novel is for you.  If you don't care for those things I encourage you to read both books anyway because they are well written and the characters are worth caring about.